Following a postal survey earlier this year that showed that 61.6% of voters approved of same-sex marriage, the Australian parliament has passed a bill legalising the unions, and Twitter is beside itself with joy.
As the proceedings unfolded in parliament #MarriageEquality began trending in top spot worldwide.
It's a YES! Simply and fairly, #MarriageEquality is now law! Today our country can be truly proud. We did it together! 🎉pic.twitter.com/lGZgUgSmyL
— AU Marriage Equality (@AMEquality) December 7, 2017
Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017 has passed the House of Representatives and has passed the Parliament. Just a few tears and so very proud to...

If you updated Instagram on iOS and Android today, you may have noticed a few tweaks to Instagram Stories and your profile page.
The company, although not completely abandoning the ephemeral content idea, is now adopting a Stories Archive -- a section of the Instagram app that files away previous stories for your reminiscing.
"Moving forward, your stories will automatically save to your archive when they expire. This makes it easy for you to revisit your favorite moments later on or bring them back to life in a highlight," the company explained on its blog.
The archive itself will resemble something akin...

EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi already holds the title of People's Bae in South Africa, but today, the member of Parliament added another title to his name: doctor.
The 32-year-old today was awarded a Doctorate in political studies from Wits University, joining the likes of Nelson Mandela and Joe Slovo, both of whom also held qualifications from the institution.
Ndlozi, who first announced that he had completed his doctorate in August, was today honoured in Gauteng. The EFF's vanguard was also in attendance.
While livestreaming the ceremony -- the official EFF account, along with Floyd Shivambu and EFF leader Julius Malema -- published...

Starting today, Instagram will notify users when they search for hashtags that could promote animal cruelty or environmental harm.
Instagram already removes posts that depict animal abuse or the sale of endangered animals, but there are some tags -- like #ElephantRides -- that have the potential to normalise cruel behaviour without expressly violating its terms of service.
Now, when a user searches a tag like that, the app will pop open a content advisory screen that alerts them of the potential harm imposed by the content.
The screen reads:
Animal abuse and the sale of endangered animals or their parts is not allowed on Instagram....

YouTube has finally addressed its child content and monetisation problems after years of reportedly ignoring its creators and their concerns.
In a post to YouTube's creator blog, CEO Susan Wojcicki admitted that the company has a problem, and that it needed to be "more accurate" with the content it financially endorses.
The announcement comes years after creators say they sounded the alarm for what is now dubbed "Elsagate", a scandal that involves disturbing videos targeted at children.
YouTube has seemingly only responded after a New York Times article led advertisers to divest from the company.
CEO Susan Wocjicki says that YouTube needs to be 'more accurate' regarding content it financially endorses
"Some bad actors are exploiting our openness...

Singer Melanie Martinez was trending at number one worldwide this morning (5 December 2017) after longtime friend Timothy Heller accused the former Voice contestant of rape.
In a series of notes posted to Twitter, Heller wrote about how Martinez -- her best friend at the time -- had begged her for sex two nights in a row and eventually bargained with her until Heller felt powerless to stop the interaction.
When I wrote this story about my assault, I initially wasn’t going to make the abuser. But I think it’s important for you all to know this is about Melanie Martinez pic.twitter.com/4PQ5oNI2s9
— Timothy Heller (@timethyheller)...

Former US President Barack Obama has warned against the perils of consuming news only through social media at a conference in New Delhi, India.
Speaking to a group of young Indian leaders, Obama recognised that "instead of deep analysis and evaluation", users on platforms like Twitter were instead "skimming the surface", according to Time Magazine.
The former president has been vocal about his qualms with social media before -- he warned of how dangerous a recorded past could be earlier this year -- but his comments are well-timed to criticise US President Donald Trump who recently retweeted incendiary videos from a far-right party in the UK.
The...

WhatsApp is down yet again, this according to user reports published to Twitter on Thursday evening.
Tweets suggest that the messaging service began experiencing issues just before 9pm SAST.
Is whatsapp down for everyone else?
— Leo (@taylorleoswift) November 30, 2017
Anyone else's #WhatsappDown?
— Krupesh (@krupeshn) November 30, 2017
According to website status dashboard DownDetector, users across Europe, Africa, South America, the Asian subcontinent and the Middle East cannot send or receive messages. This also includes us in South Africa.
WhatsApp's previous worldwide outage came earlier this month.
There's no indication of the cause of this particular service disruption.
Is the messaging app down for you too?...

YouTube's Community feature, which it had been testing with a few creators for around a year, has been expanded to all users with more than 10 000 subscribers.
The social feature allows creators to engage with their viewers using text, photos, polls, and more.
The expansion announcement was expected -- it had been hinted at by a number of creators on Twitter -- but what wasn't expected was the introduction of a Stories-like feature called Reels.
Got word that the @YouTube Community tab I've been talking to you guys on is opening up to more creators this week. @nealmohan true?
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5)...

Instagram has released its 2017 year in review, and so without further ado, here are the ten most-liked images, as well as the ten most-liked videos of 2017.
Top 10 most-liked images
10. Selena Gomez
Thank you for all of my bday love. I couldn't be more blessed. A lot of you don't realize how much you mean to me. I. Love. You. --think 25 is going to be epic. xo
A post shared by Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) on Jul 22, 2017 at 10:46pm PDT
9. Selena Gomez
A post shared by Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) on Mar 17, 2017 at 10:21am PDT
8. Cristiano Ronaldo
Family mood...

Update, 30 Nov: Snapchat has officially announced its redesign that will work to "separate social from media".
The company also announced "a more sophisticated Best Friends algorithm" that will ostensibly order your friends list by whom you chat with most.
Original article: Snapchat's app redesign, first announced by CEO Evan Spiegel earlier this week, will debut on 4 December according to a report by Business Insider's Alex Heath.
Quoting sources "familiar with the matter", the publication claims that Snap employees were notified internally regarding the planned release date. Along with said date, details of the actual redesign of Snapchat's app have also been outed.
On the...

Ladysmith Black Mambazo's Grammy nominations, announced Tuesday, have brought about a flurry of tweets criticising local radio.
The South African isicathamiya group was nominated for Best World Music for Shaka Zulu Revisited: 30th Anniversary Celebration as well as Best Children's Album for Songs Of Peace & Love For Kids & Parents Around The World -- but South Africans on Twitter have lamented the fact that the group's music isn't heard on local stations.
"The Grammy Awards stay recognising LadySmith Black Mambazo (sic)," wrote Twitter user @MrMenziN, referring to the band's 15 other nominations and four wins, "but we hardly ever hear their music on our local radio." In...

Grindr, the dating app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people, is updating its app to be more inclusive of its transgender and non-binary users.
The company is introducing new profile fields that offer a wider range of gender identities and pronouns, and it says it will be using more gender-neutral language within the app.
The gender options now include "cis woman", "trans man", "non-binary", "non-conforming", and "queer".
The change comes after the company surveyed its transgender users and consulted with the US National Center for Transgender Equality, an advocacy group.
"One thing we heard over and over again from trans people using Grindr was that they felt...

In September 2017 we wrote about three volcanoes in various corners of the globe on the verge of eruption. Two months later, one of them has gone pop.
Mount Agung, a 3142m peak on the Indonesian island of Bali, last erupted in earnest in 1963. Over 1500 people died.
This weekend during Agung's latest episode, saw ash and debris thrown 4km into the atmosphere, forced local authorities on Sunday to raise the alert level, signalling the "possibility and imminent risk of disaster".
While Agung and Bali are not trending worldwide on Twitter, Instagram is awash with pictures of Agung from a number...